The World Amateur Shogi
Championship was held near New York this past weekend. Entry was limited to
players who either live outside Japan or are non-Japanese citizens except for
two young Japanese women Amateur titleholders. Format was knockout.
The convincing winner was
24 year old Paul Ogi. He lives in Japan but holds US citizenship; his father is
Japanese but his mother is American. He recently finished in the top eight in
the Japanese Amateur Meijin tournament, holds a 2600 (6 Dan) Shogi Club 24
rating, and has a 1-1 score in formal games with pros. It is quite amazing to me
that no one in the west seemed to be aware that a U.S. citizen had reached the
level of the very top of the Amateur world in Japan. Naturally no one in this
event had much of a chance against him; most of his games were not even close. I
was paired with him in the second round of the KO, and although I at least made
the game close enough that he had to demonstrate a rather difficult TSUME to
win, I never really had a chance.
Second place went to 76
year old Hisao Uyma of Brazil. Third place went to the winner in the year 2000,
Mr. Egoshi of Chile (previously of Brazil), a former member of the Shoreikai.
Fourth place went to my son Raymond Kaufman, who should have made it to the
final match as he was clearly winning against Mr Uyma in the semifinal. The B
group was won by Shigetaka Ogihara of New York, one of the organizers.
With one or two
exceptions, the invited European players failed to score against the ethnic
Japanese players; Eric Cheymol won against one of the Brazilian Japanese players
when he punched his clock after executing a capture in an illegal way.
There were six pros in
attendance, including three time Kisei titleholder Yashiki. They played clock
simul games at bishop handicap (even games in the case of the two lady
pros) against the invited players, who each played three pros. Only one
player, a Japanese-American from Los Angeles, won two out of three. Among
the pros, Mr Yashiki showed his class by winning all of his twelve bishop
handicap games, although I did manage to beat him at bishop later in the day.
It was a very enjoyable
event and I'd like to thank the sponsors and organizers for it. Hopefully there
will be more. I'd just like to add my usual disclaimer that I consider the
knockout system to be a terrible format, as many players get to play very
few official games, and also because it tells nothing about who is really
the second best player, since if the second best player is placed in the
same bracket as the best, he cannot reach the final. I know this knockout system
is popular in Japan, but if the Japanese hope to spread shogi in the West they
should abandon this system for Western tournaments. As long
as sponsors are paying for travel, western players will attend regardless
of format, but very few will spend their own money to attend a knockout
event.
Larry Kaufman, Amateur 5
Dan